Archive for February, 2014

ENTEBBE, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s president on Monday signed a controversial anti-gay bill that has harsh penalties for homosexual sex, saying it is needed to deter what he called the West’s “social imperialism” promoting homosexuality in Africa.

President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill at his official residence in an event witnessed by government officials, journalists and a team of Ugandan scientists whose report —which found that there is no proven genetic basis for homosexuality — cited by Museveni as his reason for backing the bill.

“We Africans never seek to impose our view on others. If only they could let us alone,” he said, talking of Western pressure not to sign the bill. “We have been disappointed for a long time by the conduct of the West. There is now an attempt at social imperialism.”

Without naming them, Museveni accused “arrogant and careless Western groups” of trying to recruit Ugandan children into homosexuality, prompting local pressure for the law.

The new law calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It also sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults as well as same-sex acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.

Government officials applauded after he signed the bill, which in its original draft called for the death penalty for some homosexual acts. That penalty was removed from the legislation following an international outcry. Rights groups repeatedly urged Museveni not to sign the bill, saying it is unnecessary in a country where homosexuality is already illegal under a colonial-era law that criminalized sex acts “against the order of nature.”

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FILE – In this July 11, 2012 file photo, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni speaks during the London …

Some European countries such as Sweden have threatened to cut aid to Uganda if the measure was enacted and U.S. President Barack Obama warned that signing the bill would “complicate” this East African country’s relationship with Washington.

“By signing this bill, Museveni has not only let down gay Ugandans; he has also failed the very constituencies he claims to be protecting, including children,” said Maria Burnett, a Uganda researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Laws to protect children from abuse by perpetrators of either the same or the opposite sex are on the books, but are poorly enforced in Uganda; policing consensual same-sex activity between adults and criminalizing talking about sexual rights will only distract from important police work and take away resources from the hard work of protecting children from abuse.”

Burnett added that the bill is “a dramatic blow to freedom of expression … criminalizing the expression of divergent views doesn’t bode well for anyone in Uganda.”

But the bill is widely popular in Uganda, where it has been championed by Christian clerics and many politicians.

Homosexuality is criminalized in many African countries. Nigeria last month passed an anti-gay law.

In signing the bill, Museveni said he had previously thought homosexuality was merely “abnormal” sexual behavior that some people were born with — the reason he once opposed harsh penalties against gays. Now he said he is convinced that it is a choice made by individuals who may try to influence others.

Africans are “flabbergasted” by homosexual behavior which they see as a “fundamental attack on their way of life,” he said.

“Many of our homosexuals are mercenaries, heterosexuals who become homosexuals because of money … These are prostitutes for money,” he said.

The anti-gay measure was introduced in 2009 by a lawmaker with the ruling party who said the law was necessary to deter Western homosexuals from “recruiting” Ugandan children.

That legislator, David Bahati, said Monday that the bill’s enactment is “a triumph of our sovereignty, a victory for the people of Uganda, the children of Uganda.”

Uganda Dismisses Obama Pressure On Anti-gay LawPlay video

Ugandan gays have disputed Bahati’s account, saying he and other political leaders were influenced by conservative U.S. evangelicals who wanted to spread their anti-gay agenda in Africa.

Pepe Julian Onziema, a prominent Uganda gay activist, said he was disappointed that Museveni signed the bill without taking time to talk to the people targeted by the law: Ugandan homosexuals.

“The president is making this decision because he has never met an openly gay person. That disappoints me,” he said. Some in Uganda’s gay community had repeatedly tried and failed to meet with Museveni, he said.

Museveni, whose popularity has been fading amid criticism that he wants to rule for life, had faced pressure from the ruling party to sign the anti-gay measure.

Some critics believe Museveni is signing the bill in hopes of galvanizing political support within his party, the National Resistance Movement, ahead of an upcoming meeting that is expected to endorse him as the party’s sole choice in the next presidential election in 2016, when he will have been in power for 30 years.

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Everything’s still awesome at the box office. “The Lego Movie” was No. 1 for the third straight weekend with $31.4 million.

The animated hit comedy based on the plastic toy building blocks is still in a market-high 3,890 theaters and it dominated, more than doubling the totals of two movies that opened this weekend. The Kevin Costner spy thriller “3 Days to Kill” was second with $12.3 million and the pricey volcano epic “Pompeii” fizzled with $10.1 million for third.

“The Lego Movie” posted the second-best third weekend an animated movie has ever had, behind only “Shrek 2,” which made $37 million back in 2004. That’s on the heels of its $69 million first week, and the $49 million it took over the Presidents Day holiday weekend.

It’s a great way to celebrate for Warner Bros. and producing partner Village Roadshow. On Friday they set May 26, 2017, for a follow-up to their Hasbro toy-based blockbuster, which has rolled up $183 million domestically since opening on Feb. 7 and more than $225 million worldwide.

So why has plastic been so fantastic?

“Every once in awhile a movie takes on a life of its own, and this one has,” Warner Bros. executive vice-president for distribution Jeff Goldstein told TheWrap. ‘It’s playing way beyond just families, and that’s because the pop culture references work so well with parents and adults. The writing (by directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller) really is fantastic.

“That been great because what’s surprised us is the number of people — not so much families — going to high-end theaters to see it,” he said, noting that the premium theaters and the 3D upcharges have provided an extra boost to its bottom line at box office.

The debuts of the two openers were in line with modest projections. But “Three Days to Kill,” from Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, cost just $28 million to make, while Constantine Film’s “Pompeii,” which Sony is distributing, cost at least $80 million to produce.

The opening “was right in line with our expectations” said a spokesman for distributor Relativity, which co-produced and co-financed “3 Days to Kill” with EuropaCorp. The two companies also teamed on “The Family,” which debuted last year, and “Brick Mansions,” which Relativity is distributing later this spring.

The McG-directed “3 Days to Kill” drew a crowd that was evenly divided between men and women but 80 percent over the age of 25, and they gave it a so-so “B” CinemaScore. Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld and Connie Nielsen co-star in “3 Days,” which opened in 2,872 theaters.

“Pompeii,” from “Resident Evil” director Paul W. S. Anderson, featured “Game of Thrones” star Kit Harington. It was marketed as a disaster epic with a love story — a la “Titanic” — but it failed to connect; its audience, which was 52 percent male and 38 percent under the age of 30, gave it a lukewarm B CinemaScore. Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning and Kiefer Sutherland co-star in the PG-13 action saga, which opened in 2,658 theaters.

“Pompeii” isn’t the first sword-and-sandals saga to go belly-up this year. Last month, Lionsgate’s $70 million “The Legend of Hercules” opened to less than $9 million and has topped out at $18 million domestically. Paramount is scheduled to join the toga party in July, when it releases the Brent Ratner-directed “Hercules,” with Dwayne Johnson as the Greek hero.

With “Robocop” fourth, “Monuments Men” fifth and “About Last Night” sixth, Sony-distributed movies took the next three spots.

The “Robocop” remake starring Joel Kinnaman posted a $9.3 million second week and is up to $43 million domestically and more than $105 million worldwide. George Clooney’s World War II art heist film is over $58 million domestically after an $8.1 million third weekend.

Kevin Hart’s “About Last Night” was one of two romance remakes that did well on Valentine’s Day but took their lumps this weekend.

“About Last Night” dropped a whopping 71 percent from its opening with $7.4 million and is at $38 million domestically after two weeks. Universal’s low-budget “Endless Love” update was off 68 percent from its debut and took in $4.3 million to raises its two-week domestic total to $20 million.

Disney’s animated blockbuster “Frozen” upped its domestic total to $384 million after adding another $4.3 million in its 14th weekend. Its global total is over $980 million.

The lyrical tale of a young man who loves airplanes and goes on to develop the Japan’s World War II fighter plane the Zero brought in $306,000 from 21 theaters. That’s a solid $14,359 per-screen average for the film, which Disney will open nationwide next weekend.

Couples made up 76 percent of its audience, and it received an “A-” CinemaScore.

Lawyers: Free man wrongfully locked up for decades

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This March 15, 1980 proclamation by then Texas Governor Mark White commutes Jerry Hartsfield’s death …

BAY CITY, Texas (AP) — Attorneys for a Texas man who was kept in prison for more than three decades after his murder conviction was overturned have asked a court to free him so he can get on with his life, saying he’s suffered enough from the mishandling of his case and that key trial evidence has gone missing.

Attorney Jeffrey Newberry wrote in a recent court petition that the state clearly violated Jerry Hartfield’s right to a speedy trial by waiting decades to retry him for the 1976 death of Eunice Lowe, who was beaten to death at the Bay City bus station where she worked as a ticket agent.

“The most serious prejudice a defendant can suffer in being denied a right to a speedy trial is to have his defense possibly impaired,” Newberry wrote. He urged State District Judge Craig Estlinbaum to free Hartsfield “with prejudice,” meaning the state couldn’t retry him on the same charges.

Hartfield, 57, was convicted in 1977 of killing Lowe and sentenced to death, but that conviction was overturned three years later. After prosecutors unsuccessfully appealed that ruling, then-Gov. Mark White commuted Hartfield’s sentence to life in prison in 1983.

Hartfield, who is described in court documents as an illiterate fifth-grade dropout with an IQ of 51, didn’t challenge his continued detention until 2006, when a fellow prisoner pointed out that once his conviction was overturned, there was no sentence to commute. Appeals courts agreed and ordered Hartfield freed or retried. Hartfield is scheduled to stand trial again in April for Lowe’s slaying.

In a court filing, Matagorda County District Attorney Steven Reis rejected the assertion that Hartfield should go free. While acknowledging that the state “may be partially responsible” for the delay in retrying Hartfield, Reis argued that prosecutors didn’t act in bad faith and that Hartfield bears some responsibility.

Hartfield “failed to proffer any evidence that he wanted a speedy trial during this period,” Reis wrote. No evidence supports a finding that Hartfield “actually wanted a new and speedy trial,” that he did anything before 2007 to assert that his right to a speedy trial had been violated, or that the state deliberately acted to delay a retrial, Reis contends.

Newberry contends that the state was solely responsible for the retrial delay.

“Had the state carried out the (appeals court) mandate, Hartfield would not have needed to file the documents that he began filing,” he wrote. “Mr. Hartfield has affirmatively demonstrated that his ability to present a defense has been prejudiced by the delay.”

Newberry also says authorities haven’t been able to find some evidence used to convict Hartfield, including a pickaxe used in the attack or Lowe’s car, which was stolen and later recovered. Furthermore, a Texas Ranger who was a key witness for the prosecution at Hartfield’s 1977 trial has since died, he wrote.

Estlinbaum asked both sides to address some legal questions before he rules on the matter.

At the time of the killing, Hartfield, who grew up in Altus, Okla., was working construction at nuclear power plant near the bus station where Lowe worked. He was arrested within days of the killing in Wichita, Kan., and was convicted and sentenced to death in 1977.

Hartfield disputes a confession police said he gave them that was among the evidence used to convict him. Prosecutors also had an unused bus ticket found at the crime scene that had his fingerprints on it and testimony from witnesses who said he had talked about needing $3,000. Reis said Hartfield led authorities to Lowe’s car in Houston and that his fingerprint was on a piece of broken Dr Pepper bottle found beside Lowe’s body.

Before we get to discussing the best position to get pregnant, let’s get one important thing straight first: you can get pregnant in any position-man on top, woman on top, standing, sitting, lying down or on all fours. Pregnancy happens when the male sperm enters the woman’s vagina and meets up with an egg on its way to the uterus up the fallopian tube. Ideally, this is possible with any sexual position that you assume.

Unfortunately, however, some couples do find it hard to conceive for several reasons, including weak or insufficient sperm count. In some cases, as when nature needs a boost, a little push from you and your partner can go a long way in getting pregnant. When it comes to the best position to get pregnant, the general rule is that the male sperm must be deposited as near to the female cervix as possible.

This has something to do with the life spans of the female egg and the male sperm. Once an egg is released from the ovary-a stage also known as ovulation-it begins its path down the fallopian tube to the uterus. A released egg typically survives for only 24 hours, while a sperm can last anywhere from three to five days in the female body. As such, the egg has to be as close to the egg as possible so they can meet and join before the egg dies.

While not a lot of people will agree that the sexual positions have anything to do with getting pregnant, the logical inference is that it makes sense to assume the position that can help the sperm meet the egg in the shortest possible time.

This is especially true when for couples who have problems or difficulty conceiving. Having said this, the first “best position to get pregnant” tip is to avoid positions that least expose the cervix to the male sperm, and that generally defy gravity such as sex while standing up, sitting down, or with the woman on top. When trying to conceive, it is best to limit the amount of sperm that flows back out of the vagina.

The woman’s hips should also be positioned in such a way that the sperm released is kept inside, giving it enough time to swim up to the female cervix.

Consider the following positions instead:

1. The missionary position, or man-on-top, is said to be the position that’s best for getting pregnant. This is because this particular position allows for the deepest possible penetration, making it possible for the sperm to get deposited closest to the cervix.

2. Elevating the hips, which can be done by placing a pillow behind her, can also be helpful because this exposes the female cervix to as much semen as the male can release.

3. The rear-entry position where the man enters the woman from behind is also a recommended position. In this position, sperm is also deposited closest to the cervix, thereby helping increase the chances of conception.

4. You can also try having intercourse while lying side by side. This position likewise causes the most exposure of the cervix to the male sperm.

5. Finally, while this has nothing to do with sexual positions, there are also researches that suggest the importance of the female orgasm in conceiving. According to studies, female orgasm leads to contractions that could push sperm up into the cervix. The lesson: have fun while trying to conceive.

Top 50 cities for singles looking for love

Facebook ranked 50 major cities with the best odds for turning a “Single” status to “In a relationship”

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Colorado Springs, with its snow-capped Rocky Mountain backdrop, is home to the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

It is also the most romantic major U.S. city. According to data gathered by researchers at Facebook Inc., Colorado Springs residents couple up in committed relationships at a higher rate than in other major cities.

The city isn’t a theme park for the hopelessly smitten, though. One explanation for its apparently high relationship rate: Strong military and religious communities help promote traditional values, social scientists and residents say.

Colorado Springs also is a college town and an outdoor sports hub attracting more men than women. It’s a place where people keep fit, active and social, and the growing downtown bar scene probably doesn’t hurt.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, we asked Facebook for some help settling a perennial debate: Where is the best place in America to live if you are single and looking for love?

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Many have tried using U.S. census data to rank cities based on each one’s singles population. But Facebook, with 201 million users in the U.S. and Canada, has something the Census Bureau doesn’t: Real-time relationship statuses for about half of Americans. Over a one-month period, Facebook ranked major U.S. cities according to the percentage of singles that went from “Single” to “In a relationship.”

Finding a partner is an evermore complicated endeavor in the U.S. Researchers say more people are postponing serious relationships in favor of careers and considering more factors as they search for the ideal mate.

More choice isn’t necessarily a good thing when it comes to relationships, says Justin Garcia, a professor in the department of gender studies at Indiana University and a researcher at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

“Sometimes when you’re in a big city and there are thousands and thousands of people you might find attractive, it becomes so overwhelming that you don’t engage in the dating culture at all,” he says.

Overall, the Facebook data seems to back up Dr. Garcia’s hypothesis: Big cities like San Francisco and New York had some of the lowest rates of coupling up. The data team also identified cities with high single male-to-female ratios and vice versa.

The most popular social network, it turns out, can also serve as the world’s biggest survey. Facebook’s 1.23 billion monthly active users world-wide constantly feed the company invaluable data.

An informal working group of stats whizzes and Ph.Ds on Facebook’s data sciences team did the Valentine’s Day analysis in October, using anonymous profile information gathered in the 50 U.S. cities with the most Facebook users. “This is a side project for us,” says Mike Develin, the main researcher in the informal working group on relationships. “Forgive the pun, but it’s our passion.”

Facebook’s data is by no means perfect. Some people don’t bother updating the relationship status on their Facebook profile when they begin and end a relationship, for instance. And Facebook didn’t break down the numbers by age or other demographics.

Overall, Facebook found that big, cosmopolitan cities with highly educated populations—places like New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami—tend to have the highest percentages of single people. Those cities also tended to have the lowest couples rates.

A lot of cities with high relationship rates are in the South, Mr. Develin notes. Trailing Colorado Springs on the list are El Paso, Texas; Louisville, Ky., Fort Worth, Texas, and San Antonio.

That was no surprise to Philip Cohen, sociology professor the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland. The Facebook data says more about the prevalence of traditional dating culture in the South than about which individual cities are singles meccas, he says.

He advises people in search of a relationship to go where there are lots of other single people, not where there are high couples rates. “You only need to form one relationship, but you might want a lot of singles to choose from,” he said, in an email.

David Siegel, a 24-year-old violinist, doesn’t fit the stereotype some people may associate with Colorado Springs, where he grew up. He moved back from New York over a year ago. “I’ve found it a good place to be single,” Mr. Siegel says, citing the thriving bars, restaurants and art galleries.

New York’s dating scene was a “rat race,” he says. People in Colorado Springs seem more interested in a lasting relationship. “Playing the game has a lot less do it with it,” he says.

Alejandro Ganem, a 28-year-old El Paso resident, said he often feels pressure to couple up—especially in a city big enough to support a vibrant night life but small enough for word to travel fast. “When I start dating a girl, immediately she starts hearing about me,” he says, including things about his ex-girlfriends. Sometimes a woman will pressure him to change his Facebook status to signal that he’s off the market, he says.

Not all cities with a high relationship ranking are in the South. Portland, Ore., is a city so progressive that it spawned a TV show lampooning its culture, and it has a higher relationship rank than Houston; Richmond, Va., and Nashville, Tenn. Portland also had a high single male-to-female ratio, beating even Anchorage, Alaska. Some of those cities weren’t big enough to make the Top 50 ranking.

Single ladies, take note: Cities near outdoor recreation tend to have a high proportions of single men. Among places with the highest, Facebook says, are outdoor hubs like Livingston, Mont.; Boise, Idaho; and Vancouver, Wash.—which all were too small to make the Top 50 ranking—and, again, Colorado Springs.

Life in those towns isn’t easy for single men. “It’s horrible,” says David Fischer, a 48-year-old Honeywell International Inc. project manager in Colorado Springs. He turned to eHarmony to find his future fiancée, Kara Galvin, who lives in Denver, about an hour’s drive north. They plan to get married this summer.

Although researchers hypothesize that religious cities would rank higher in relationship rates, the Facebook analysis found exceptions. Charlotte, N.C., and Nashville are among the nation’s most religious cities, according to the American Bible Association, but they both ranked low on Facebook’s list of relationship cities.

El Paso and San Antonio may owe their spots in the top five relationship cities to their Mexican heritage, says Andrew Cherlin a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University. “Hispanics tend to marry early,” he said.

Eric Diaz, a 35-year-old dairy buyer at Whole Foods Market who grew up in San Antonio, says most of his friends met their spouses while in high school or college and got hitched in their 20s. He married Genefe Diaz, who moved to San Antonio after she graduated from college. When she arrived, many young professionals in town were already coupled up, she says. “San Antonio is just a really big small town,” Ms. Diaz says. To find suitable men, “you really had to dig.”

20 Things Men Don’t Know About Women

A friend of mine, a guy who used to occasionally step out on his woman and hook up with other girls, had the strangest theory about the female species.

“Women don’t cheat,” he told me, when I asked if he was ever worried she was doing the same thing to him. “It’s just not in their nature.” I just laughed. Of course, I was not at all surprised when he found out she’d been two-timing him for most of their relationship after their inevitable breakup, but he was completely shocked.

There are of course many things that men don’t know about women, mainly because we don’t want them to know, and so we try and keep them hidden really well. But during my two and a half years of interviewing countless ladies for Maxim‘s sex section, I discovered that there are many, many more things that we ladies keep hidden from men …

When you’re not around, we fart. The longer, the louder and the stinker, the more enjoyable.

As soon as we are alone in the house—husband leaves for the office, kids go to school, roommate goes out of town—and we have quality free time knowing no one is going to walk in on us, we masturbate. Sometimes we even just do it if you’re still in the house if that quality free time is never going to come. Usually, it’s while we’re in the bathroom.

A good majority of us prefer to pee outside. And in the shower. And sometimes we really just want to do it in the hot tub, but we try to not do that one out of respect for everyone else in there.

We pluck stray hairs from our toes, our chin, our lips, moles on the backs of our legs and our nipples. And we really, really enjoy plucking a stubborn ingrown hair. Getting that sucker out is, for some gross reason, such sweet satisfaction.

When we’re in love, we smell your clothes or the pillow you were sleeping on when you’re not around. If you were to catch us doing this, we’d be mortified.

We’ve all wished that we could be more open and casual about sex from time to time … maybe go to a swingers party, have a threesome or be a dirty stripper for a night, but with no emotional consequences.

Deep down we really hope that your guy friends secretly want to sleep with us, and very often we will dress for them and subtly flirt just so they will. We don’t want to bone them; we just want them towant us.

We are not insulted in the slightest by those catcalls from construction workers, as long as they aren’t rude or nasty. It’s kind of flattering. We also like it when you get a little jealous, to a degree. Not in an irrational or psycho way, just a bit to show you’re protective and you care.

We regularly check in on what our exes are up to via Facebook, emails or texts. As long as we have the technology, they will never be fully out of our lives or minds. This doesn’t mean we still love them; we’re just curious.

When we have girls’ nights, we do bad things that you wouldn’t approve of like spill all of your embarrassing secrets, sneak cigarettes or other substances, and drink way more than we let on. Grinding with strangers at a club can also sometimes occur.

When you’re not around, we fart. The longer, the louder and the stinkier, the more enjoyable.

If you’re really hot or the sex is good, you can be a total idiot and we’ll still date you for a while. But we’ll never marry you. Brains and kindness will always trump sexiness when it comes to marriage material.

A lot of times we really like to have sex on the first date to determine whether the chemistry is there and we should have another date. Or sometimes we’re just plain horny and want to get laid. We hate being judged for it.

We hate waxing our privates. Hate it, hate it, hate it. But, we like that when it’s cleaned up you go down on us more readily. In a perfect world, you would go down on us with regularity on naturally poofy pubes.

When a guy says he doesn’t want kids, it’s really a dealbreaker for almost every woman who is still of child-bearing years.

The majority of us don’t really care about how much money you have or make as long as you are kind and emotionally generous and work hard. Laziness and lack of motivation is inherently unsexy.

A lot of us are fakers … when it comes to our love of sports and being outdoorsy.

We love flaws on guys. A little belly, gray hairs, even a receding hairline. It reminds us that we all have body issues and that we shouldn’t be so insecure or hard on ourselves. Being human is cool. But being whiny about your paunch or constantly fussing over your gray temples is as annoying as us always asking, “Does this make me look fat?”

During sex, we’re usually thinking about something other than you. A gross and pervy situation, another man, being dominated … who knows, but we always, always fantasize. It doesn’t mean we’re not sexually attracted to you, we just need the weird mental images to get us off.

We don’t consider drunk kissing cheating, as long as we’re the ones doing the drunk kissing. We consider sex with another man cheating.

We cherish our independence and “me” time more than you’ll ever know. We say we miss you, but are often secretly glad you’re going so we can just totally relax and be ourselves. But we still love it when you come back.